The Hornets shipped 44 goals in 24 Premier League games before the now- Everton boss was sacked by the Vicarage Road club. At Hull in 2016/17, his defensive record was 36 goals conceded across 18 league matches.

Having already seen Roberto Martinez suffer similar criticism during his time as Blues manager, some fans were understandably a little sceptical of what could be on the horizon for their club.

But the last few months have started to dispel those myths.

Barring disappointing defeats against Newcastle and Fulham, Everton have been on a fantastic run of form in terms of defending - which is certainly something you couldn't say for the rest of the season.

Read More

The Blues had to wait until their seventh Premier League game of 2018/19 for their first clean sheet and in fact only managed two in their first 11 matches of the term.

But, Silva has transformed his side now.

Everton have now kept seven clean sheets in their last nine matches against, on paper at least, some of the toughest opposition in the division.

A lot of emphasis has quite rightly been placed on how effectively the Blues attacked each of the likes of Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester United at Goodison Park in recent weeks.

Video Loading

Video Unavailable

Click to playTap to play

The video will start in 8Cancel

Play now

But Everton's strong defensive organisation has perhaps been allowed to slide under the radar. Four of the top six have visited the blue half of Merseyside over the last two months and none managed a goal.

In fact, across those four matches, the opposition to Silva's side only managed a combined 11 shots on target.

With two games left of the current campaign only Liverpool, Man City and Chelsea have managed to keep more clean sheets than Everton in the Premier League.

With two games left this term, the Blues would need to ship another 14 just to match that figure.

And this can only be a sign of good things in the future.

Silva has now a solid base to try and build the rest of his side on top of.

Kurt Zouma's future is still up in the air, which could cause a bit of difficulty, but aside from that the makeup of Everton's defence is very promising.

Michael Keane has improved massively this term, Lucas Digne has arguably been the best left-back in the country and Seamus Coleman has fashioned himself into a great leader and equally good defender - with the help of Richarlison in front of him.